Trucks are among the most popular vehicles in the United States, and are frequently used to carry a variety of loads either commercially or for personal reasons from one location to another. For example, pickup trucks are frequently used to carry unwanted materials to a dump or recycling center; and/or wanted items such as a TV, a wardrobe and construction materials to a new house or apartment, or sporting equipment such as football gear, soccer gear, camping gear, fishing gear, and hunting gear. To carry the load, the pickup truck can either carry the load in the truck's bed or in a trailer towed behind the truck.
When using a pickup truck to transport a load, one typically should secure the load within the truck's bed or towed trailer to prevent the load from inadvertently escaping from the bed or trailer. One also typically covers the load to help keep the load dry and clean during transportation, and to prevent small objects from inadvertently escaping the truck and/or towed trailer. To adequately secure and cover a load one typically has to tie down all or portions of the load with a rope or elastic that is fastened to the wall of the truck's bed or wall of the towed trailer. This can be time consuming because one often has to first untangle the ropes and/or elastics, then figure out where to place each rope and/or elastic relative to the load to adequately secure the load, then tie each end of each rope and/or elastic to the truck. After the load is secured, one can put a cover over the load by untangling more ropes or elastics and tying each of their respective ends to the truck too.
Unfortunately, because adequately securing and covering a load is time consuming, many people secure and cover their loads inadequately. This often results in small and/or large objects falling or blowing off vehicles and slamming into windshields of trailing vehicles, and/or lying in the middle of the road. This, in turn, frequently causes the driver of a trailing vehicle to swerve erratically and dangerously to avoid the objects, and thus, can frequently cause the driver to lose control of his/her vehicle.